Dennis is worth wait in gold

Dennis Bergkamp didn't play much last month but when he did the birds sang, the sun shone, Arsene smiled and Alex squirmed.

And we realised that, as with the great Dutch masters of the past, a flourish of Bergkamp colour, perspective and genius was well worth the wait. Priceless, in fact. The goal he scored against Bayer Leverkusen, for instance, was a collector's item, a joy to behold.

Could it get better? Yes, it could. The goal he scored against Newcastle three days later provoked more debate than any other I can remember. The degree of skill involved was so outrageous that people were asking: Did he mean it?

Few players in history could produce a portfolio of goals to rival Bergkamp's catalogue of classics. For the purist, the great goals linger in the memory - his third at Leicester in the Double season, for instance, or the 89th-minute winner for Holland against Argentina in the quarter-finals of the 1998 World Cup, his own personal favourite.

"What he does is close to genius," said Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger. "I'm always wary of using those kind of words, but I think in his case they're justified. He's a player who gets close to perfection."

It's the search for perfection that has fuelled Bergkamp's illustrious career and made him the most technically proficient player in the Premiership. There is none better.

If you wanted to show your son how to anticipate a pass, trap the ball, shrug off a defender, turn and bend a shot into the net from 30 yards you'd give him a tape of Bergkamp's goals.

Tomorrow, when Arsenal resume their bid for the Treble, he returns to St James' Park where they are still trying to work out how he scored in last Saturday's 2-0 Premiership victory.

The FA Cup may now be Newcastle's only realistic hope of a trophy this season and Bergkamp can be sure that Nikos Dabizas won't want the Dutchman running rings round him a second time.

Dabizas had the misfortune to play the role of tragic Greek statue as Bergkamp and the ball took different routes to bypass him. By the time the Newcastle defender knew what was happening the ball was back at Bergkamp's feet for the micro-second it took to shoot past Shay Given.

That goal, and the exquisite chipped shot against Leverkusen in the 4-1 Champions League victory, is what football is all about and wins Bergkamp The Evening Standard Footballer of the Month award for February.

Although sharing the opinion that the Premiership and Champions League are the more prestigious prizes, he would nonetheless take particular enjoyment from playing in a winning team in the FA Cup Final.

He missed out when Arsenal beat Newcastle in the 1998 Final because of a hamstring injury and, as a late substitute, played only a few minutes of last year's final when Liverpool beat Arsenal in Cardiff.

"I think we should have won more medals considering the progress we've made as a team," he said.

"We've always been second, always very close. You can be happy with that or, like me you can prefer to be first. This season we have a great chance of being first.

"It's incredible that we're still in everything. There's a lot of power and speed in the team and the squad is stronger than in 1998, though comparisons aren't really relevant until we win something. But now, when two strikers are out, we have two more to come in."

This competition for places has limited Bergkamp's first-team starts this season. At 32 he's the oldest of Arsenal's five frontline strikers and admits that it's difficult to accept a role as substitute. "I always feel that I can play every game," he said.

Even so, he can't envisage playing for another team. He wants to finish his career at Arsenal. His contract expires at the end of next season and if he maintains his present form it's likely that Arsenal will extend it.

"I have loved my time in London and feel this is my second home," he said. "It's always difficult to say what will happen in the future but the way I feel now I hope to finish my career here.

"I don't think I'll play for anyone else. I don't feel I want to go to another club here or in another country. I've no plans for the future but I won't stay in football. I have no ambition to be a coach."

Named by his father in honour of the great Manchester United and Scotland striker Denis Law, Bergkamp began his career in the Ajax youth academy in Amsterdam and was just 17 when the manager Johan Cruyff put him into the first team.

He became the most prolific of Holland's international marksmen with a record 37 goals and many of his countrymen feel that his retirement has been a significant factor in the Dutch decline and failure to qualify for the 2002 World Cup.

His place in the folklore of the English game, though, is secure. Signed by Bruce Rioch from Inter Milan for £7.5million in July 1995, the consistently high quality of his football has earned him admirers throughout the Premiership, not just at Highbury.

Footballer of the Year in 1998, occasionally petulant on the field, his family values and understated Dutch demeanour have spared him many of the headlines that have embraced his contemporaries.

If he has a flaw it is his quest for the unobtainable - perfection. "I'm easily frustrated," he smiled.

"I'm always looking for the perfect goal, the perfect pass, the perfect moment. If it's not working I want to practise until I get it right."

Is he a perfectionist in everything he does? "Yes, but not like in football," he replied. "In football it's extreme. I demand perfection from myself. I know it's not possible, but I always want to push myself."

And that goal at St James' Park? Did he mean it? "Of course," he replied. "The most important element was the pace of the ball. It had to be right. Yes, perhaps there was a little bit of luck because a lot could have gone wrong. But it didn't."